A Crow Wading in the Mist: The Path of a new Kendoka

Day 40: What I intended to write

2006-04-20T14:08:00.000-07:00

Ok, so now that things are working back here at the ole blog spot, I can update with what has been going on. I did a couple more "2 a day" sessions of the beginner and advanced class, but it left my foot in ruins. The blood blister I showed in an earlier post came off during practice and the new skin underneath it was not ready at all for what was next. Halfway through the advanced class that night, I had to step out because each step gave me a searing pain in my foot. Without getting too gross, lets just say things were torn and leave it at that. I then did something that is almost unheard of when it comes to people with my last name: I took time off from practice to let my foot heal up. I took about a week and a half off and that seemed to let my foot get things back in order.

While this was happening, I got an email from Arthur over at Kendo Style saying that my armor was here and ready for me. Needless to say, I was very excited. He came to my office and I once again appropriated our high tech executive visitor center for the low-tech purpose of making sure my bogu fit. It turns out that the kote were too small, so he brought me the proper size next week. For some reason, he upgraded my order, so I ended up getting a nice $900 set of armor for $550. The differences were subtle at first glance, but were basically things like deerskin for the palms of the kote instead of leather and titanium for the grill of the men instead of steel. I was very pleased with the upgrade eventhough I couldn't quite understand his explanation of why it happened.

I knew the himo (cords) would bleed indigo, so I soaked them a couple days in a vinegar/water solution. After a couple days, they still bled a little, but no where near as bad as when I first got them.

So now I was ready to try it out. I went a little early to class and asked sensei if he could show me how to put everything on. We went through the process and I went through the beginner class with the chest and hip armor on to try it out. The big difference with bogu on is the heat. In just a kendogi there's at least venting for the heat to escape for your core. With the armor in place, it pretty much stays right there. It took a little adjusting to, but it wasn't all that bad.

Day something or other. Lets just say 40

2006-04-19T15:51:00.000-07:00

Well, I logged in to finally update and Blogger says that there is a scheduled outage at 4:00. Being that its currently 3:51, I'll have to come back later to post updates.

Day 33: Day of serious madness.

2006-03-10T15:25:00.000-08:00

So, the class started out pretty normal. We had the yelling sensei, who works us hard, but is always a lot of fun. I noticed about halfway through class that my blood blister from last week had torn open, which was ok. It didn't hurt and there was new skin underneath, it was just a somewhat annoying feeling. Well, as we went along, we got to a point where sensei had us do lunges across the length of the gym while striking. Back and forth. A little tiring, but really not that bad. Next, he had us squat down and leap up, strike and land in a squat. All the way across the gym! It was actually a lot easier than I thought it was going to be and I didn't have much trouble with it. Then, he got an evil grin on his face and said "turn around". We then proceeded to hop in the air backwards all the way back. Most of us got to about halfway then started falling on our butts. We all enjoyed it and everyone was having a good time trying.

After this class was over, the chief sensei of the beginning class told the 4 of us that are in the process of cycling in to go ahead and bow into the the advanced class and then train until everyone put their men on. Well, immediately after warmups, the person leading the class had everyone don their men right away. So, we were put into the rotation and told to strike the fully armored students. I was very impressed with the quality of the students. Everyone was very helpful and understanding of the fact that we didn't know what we were doing.

Originally the plan was to go for about 30-45 minutes in class. Instead, we were kept in the whole two hours of class! By 9:00 we were all pretty winded, but everyone was still very patient. Somehow, I managed to get to the end of class on my two feet. I was severely wiped out and the bottom of my left foot suffered some serious damage. At the end of class, sensei smiled and said "quite a workout, eh?". That was quite the understatement. As I was sitting on the bench, someone came over while putting their bogu away and said, "You did well". I laughed and said "yeah, the beginning class before this took a little bit out of me". He exclaimed "you did both classes? There is NO WAY I could do three hours of kendo!" That made me feel a lot better.

That night, I felt completely wiped out. I stopped at the 7-11 that's a mile from our house and picked up a 32 ounce gatorade. It finished it by the time I got home. I had some chills while eating and then woke up 3 different times during the night in a cold sweat. I think I might have had a touch of heat exhaustion.

As of writing this, its 3 days later, my foot is still healing and my legs still ache from class. This is going to be a rough transition.

Day 32

2006-02-25T11:58:00.000-08:00

As it was Thursday, class was in the smaller gym, which in my head means that it should be the easier day. It never is. We started off class with somewhere around 80 hayasuburi, which got the blood flowing really well. It is nice to not be so tired from those as I used to be. We had an interesting combination of instructors today. One was very old, with very broken english. It was hard to understand what he said, but his presence let you know what he meant. The assisting instuctor is about my age, first generation Japanese American. He's a very serious instructor, but also very helpfull and friendly. Odd bit of trivia: he is an engineer at a company that makes hardware for one of my company's products. Small world.

We had a pretty vigorous class and the younger instructor spent a lot of time coming over to myself and another of the "advanced beginners" to help us further refine our technique. I worked on some footwork pointers he had as we went through the class. At one point, he had the "I'm going to come over and talk to you look" as he made his way over to me. He got to me, paused for a few seconds and then said "you know, actually, that was pretty good. Now you just need to do it faster, because you'll be doing it a lot in the advanced class". With such encouragement, I pressed on with renewed vigor! A few minutes later, the chief sensei of the class (he observes the teachers) came over and said I should start staying for about 30 minutes of the advanced class starting next Tuesday. I was very excited, but kept a game face, bowed and said "of course, I look forward to it."

Starting about 30 minutes into class, my left foot started hurting. It was that very familiar blister feeling, so I just sucked it up and kept going. After class, it hurt, but not too bad, as I made my way to the car. 20 minutes later, when I got out of the car to walk upstairs it absolutely killed! I hobbled inside and when Maryanne asked what was wrong with my foot I said, "Oh, just a blister" and held it up for her to see. Maryanne needs to work on her reaction to injury for when our children are older. She exclaimed "OH MY GOODNESS!!!". I was kinda taken aback and looked at the bottom of my foot for the first time. It turns out it wasn't just any blister, but a fairly gnarly blood blister. It was so gross looking that it was actually kinda cool. In fact, I had to take a picture of it. For those of you who don't want to look, its best described as a purple blister, about the size of a silver dollar, in the shape of Africa. For those of you with stronger constitutions, feel free to look here. Two days later, it is a little darker and doesn't hurt anywhere near as much.

One of the great things about Kendo is that it makes your feet look hardcore ;)

Days 29-31

2006-02-25T11:49:00.000-08:00

Life has been kinda hectic recently and I haven't had a lot of time to update here, so I think I'll lump these 3 days into one. Mainly because they were not really all that different than a lot of other practices.

The quest for Bogu

2006-02-02T16:08:00.000-08:00

I was told now would be a good time to start looking for bogu, since it takes a couple of months for a set to be ready. I contacted a local dealer since I wasn't sure what sizing I needed. When I spoke with him over the phone, he offered to come to my office for measurements. Since my friend and I were both looking to get measured, we opted to meet at the manufacturer's location.

It turned out that the dealer's location was actually his home office. We showed up and hesitantly knocked on the door, not really sure we had the right location. He opened the door and I recognized him from our Thursday training location. I can't say much for his sales ability since I never knew he was actually there to sell stuff. I always thought he was someone's father or something. He graciously invited us in and we sat down in his living room and talked about what we were looking for and he measured us up right away. His website said he was having a sale of $200 off the set I was looking for and on top of that, he gave us another $50 off each. After he wrote up the order slip, I asked how much of a deposit I should put down. His response was actually very cool. He said (in heavily accented english), "Well, I know your dojo very well and consider you all friends, so you can just pay me when it gets here. When people from other places, like LA or New York, I ask for a deposit, but you guys its ok."

It was a very interesting comment. It made me think of "back in the day" where reputation meant a lot and the school you trained at carried a lot of weight. I guess to a degree it is the same within whatever particular martial art you are studying, but to have it happen outside of the dojo was really interesting.

So, long story short, in March I should have my bogu, which is good since sensei said I could most likely enter the tournement in May.

Day 28

2006-02-02T16:04:00.000-08:00

Lot of new folks tonight, so plenty of discussion around what we were doing. Our instructors for tonight were my favorite yelling sensei and another sensei who I've only trained under once before. His focus is definitely on kiai, so we stopped plenty of times so he could reinforce the need for kiai. It was definitely a good lessons for the brand newbies to have. I have no problem yelling my lungs out, so I tried to give even more kiai to encourage the other students.

Day 27

2006-01-27T09:18:00.000-08:00

Tonight we had the instructor who likes to torture us. We worked primarily on upper body today, not so much on footwork. This lead for plenty of opportunity for his brand of humor. At one point, we were doing 1 handed men and at the end of 30 of them, he said "ok, now hold it there for about 30 seconds." Tweenty seconds later he announced "ok, only 30 more seconds to go". This continued for quite some time, but I was very happy to see that it didn't tire my arm out as much as it did the last time we did this.

Day 26

2006-01-27T09:12:00.000-08:00

I spoke with sensei before class about when to start looking at bogu. He said "let's see...you've been here almost 5 months? Sure, you should go ahead and start looking in to it. Actually, you should be able to enter the next tournament in May. You gotta start some time."

So now I get to start looking. I called up a local bogu manufacturer who actually OEMs (original equipment manufacturing) bogu for some of the usual places buy bogu from. I sent an email to see if I could go in to get sized and the salesman offered to come to my office to do measurments. I felt kinda odd about having someone show up at my place of employment with tape measure in hand, so my friend Dimitris and I will be heading over to his shop on Friday to get measured.

Day 25

2006-01-24T11:47:00.000-08:00

We had a nice vigorous class tonight. Eventhough it was in the smaller dojo, we did a good bit of movement. We focused a lot on "fumikumi" which made for a really sore right foot after slapping it against the hardwood floor for a good bit of time.

Lets just say its Day 24 and go from there

2006-01-18T15:05:00.000-08:00

The holidays definitely put a dent in my tracking, so I'm just going to write those off and go from here.

I'm starting to find that there are now "little things" that I need to focus on. 3 things come to mind:

Keeping the front foot flat during fast suriashi. Going at slow and medium speeds, I do fine, but when we start going faster my toes tend to drift upwards a little too much for my own good.
Keeping the left foot pointed forward. I've noticed that my left foot seems to point out to the left about 15 degrees, which will put far too much stress on the tendons of my ankle over the long run.
Timing. When I'm striking men while moving forward, my foot/kiai/shinai don't always hit at the same moment. Definitely trying to focus on improving that.

I'm really starting to feel impatient. Its definitely a struggle for me to not be too impatient to get into bogu. I have to remind myself that its only been about 4 months since I started, so I just need to hang tight and focus on the basics.

Day 18

2005-11-16T11:44:00.000-08:00

Attendance tonight was low enough that we had 3 people in each line, which of course meant a very tiring class. While it was a strenuous work out, I had no problem with the 50 haya suburi at the end of class.

Day 17

2005-11-11T11:37:00.000-08:00

In tonight's class, we got our first taste of what it is like to strike an opponent. We split up into 5 groups and each group had one person in full bogu to strike. It took a couple of passes to adjust to striking an opponent instead of simply air. I had a blast. I'm not sure if I was purposely stepping into my target when striking men, as I kept knocking shoulders with him as I continued through after the strike. The hardest part was striking do. Up to this point, every strike has been linear and now do was added into the mix which throws a 45 degree movement into the picture. I think I finally got it at the end. I poke with the sempai who was my target and he helped me out with some pointers. I hope to be able to apply them next time we have live opponents.

Day 16

2005-11-09T11:16:00.000-08:00

Another vigorous class tonight. It seems as if the numbers have dropped off now that Fall has arrived. One of the people that I talk with quite a bit is moving up to the advanced class next week after 6 months in the beginner class. Its really tough to be patient and focus on learning the basics.

Today sensei answered a question about how much of a bend to put in the left arm when striking men that has been bugging me, which helped a ton. Yelling sensei was saying to make the bottom arm straight, but then the main sensei would tell me not to break my wrist, which was a result of straightening the bottom arm. Tonight he said "bend it a little", which served to keep the arm straight enough and not break the wrist. Now that I've been going for 3 months, its a lot easier to ask questions before class.

Mike pointed me in the direction of a local bogu maker (Kendo Style) that I might use when I move to the advanced class. It will be nice to have a place to go locally to get measured. But of course, that is a ways off.

Day 15

2005-11-03T16:24:00.000-08:00

Wow, this was a very tough class. We had probably half the normal amount of people, so instead of 6 lines of 4-5 people each, we had 6 lines of 2 people each. The difference in recovery time was very noticable. It was a very strenous workout, but I feel stronger for having gone through it.

Day 14

2005-10-26T22:27:00.000-07:00

Another class taught by the "yelling sensei". He has definitely become my favorite instructor. He finds so much joy in what he is teaching that you can't help but feel excited about what you are learning. We practiced kiri-kaeshi for the first time tonight. While it seemed like a lot to absorb, once I actually did it, it was fairly easy to remember the steps.

Day 13

2005-10-21T22:05:00.001-07:00

We had the yelling and hitting instructor today, which always makes for a great class. At one point we were practicing kote-men across the floor when the instructor stepped in my path and watched my progress. I continued with my practice, holding my line and continued towards him, projecting my kiai the best I could. He stood there as I approached, stepped aside when I was within striking distance and said "good good" with a pat on the back as I continued by. I took that as a win.

One thing I seem to be having a hard time with is my right foot. I need to work on keeping it flat as I move it forward. During footwork, the bottom of my right foot is visible from the front. I concentrated on it, but still need some work.

Day 12

2005-10-19T17:01:00.000-07:00

Well, today I felt like one of the "big kids". In Kendo, it is tradition to line up for bowing in to class from left to right. The more senior students to the left, with the newer students to the right. I lined up in my usual spot, about 1/4 of the way from the right side and sensei told me to move down to the other end with the rest of the people in kendogi. I went from the right to the left. It defintely felt like progress of some sort. Granted, once I get into the advanced class, I'll be sitting on the right side for quite some time.

During warmups, the 50 haya suburi left me less winded this time, so its good to see some improvement. At the end of class we actually did some striking practice. We lined up 5 to a line, spaced a few feet apart and held our shinai parallel to the ground at the height of our head. The 1st person in line then turned around and moved down the line, striking each shinai. Once we got the hang of it, the line was constantly moving and it was a blast. One of the senior students informed me that I was striking too high on the opponent's shinai, but it was a simple adjustment to make.

I came to a realization during class about the level at which one holds their shinai. I seem to have been holding it up too high, but once I thought about lowering it to where I have a completely unobstructed view in front of me, that seemed to do the trick. It has been hard for me to properly judge where a level point with my throat was, but once I thought of it that way, it seemed to help.

Day 11

2005-10-13T23:16:00.000-07:00

This was the first class with my new gi and I was prepared to be wiped out by the extra heat generated by the heavy material. I was pleasantly suprised that it was not the case. I think its in part to the great keikogi which I'll talk more about in another post.

This class was taught by a senior student, who at first seemed a little condescending with her comments, but once she realized the majority of the class was new, I think she lightened up a bit. We spent a good 20 minutes working on the technique for haya suburi, which was very tiring, but I don't think I was any more tired than the rest of the class after doing it for so long. The sempai taught a very fundamentals based class and went into a lot of detail about each movement we were doing. It was actually very helpfull in learning exactly how haya suburi is supposed to be done. Since we worked so long on the basics that are done during warmups, we did not actually bow into class until about 30 after the hour. The rest of class we covered simple foot movement and striking men.

We ended class with concentration drills and I was very happy to realize that I was now actually counting in Japanese instead of shouting in Japanese and counting in English in my head.

The endurance is still improving and my ankle is no longer giving me trouble.

Day 10

2005-10-11T22:09:00.000-07:00

Good vigorous practice today. At one point, it looked like sensei was tired of dealing with the young ones in class, so he had a student from the advanced class take them aside and work with them separately. Of course, since the young ones are typically put at the front of the lines, it meant that every line was now 1 person shorter, so we got in more repetitions of each technique. It got me good and winded, but nothing that was too bad. I'm definitely feeling in much better shape than I was when I started. We ended the class with 50 haya saburi which were just fine. The only problem I had with them was my left foot seemed to have developed a blister over the course of class, so it was a touch painfull. Other than that, no problem.

E-bogu.com is awesome.

2005-10-10T13:03:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned before, my kendogi was too large, so I sent it back to e-bogu to replacement. They had my replacement kendogi out the very day my return arrived. I was even more impressed with an email I received about the order. When you order a hakama from them, it comes sitched with white thread in order to hold the pleats in place, like so:While trying on the hakama, I took the stitching out. In retrospect, not the brightest thing to do, but live and learn. The email from Anna at e-bogu said the following:
The Hakama you returned was not in original condition and we usually do charge re-stocking fee of $15, but since you are our valued customer, I will waive it for you this time. Please just remember that you can not take the stitches off if you want to return Hakama.

I thought that was a very nice touch. It would have been easy enough to charge the $15, but they ignored policy to help with customer good will. That small gesture definitely goes a long way in my opinion of their shop. I would recommend e-bogu to anyone in need of martial arts supplies.

Day 9

2005-10-07T09:44:00.000-07:00

I've been reading Kendo: The Definitive Guide by Hiroshi Ozawa and one of the things that really stood out in the book was his comment that practice should be looked at as a chance to perform one perfect strike. I tried to be mindful of this during training and I found that it helped tremendously. During class, I found myself actually looking forward to the second half of class that involves the extra strenuous activity. Part of this is due of course to improved conditioning. I am amazed that after a month, my endurance has improved so greatly. Maybe its the ole' athletic genes kicking back in.

During class, I made an effort to focus on each individual strike as the only reason for being in the dojo. Instead of looking at it as "how many cuts will it take to get across", I looked at it as a coincidence that the strikes I was making were actually getting me to the other side of the dojo. I think it made a huge difference.

It reminded me of when I was on the polevaulting team in highschool/college. While each vault was strenuous, it was also a lot of fun, so the physical exhaustion was outweighed by the excitement of the activity.

Blue Hands and the Friendly Nemesis

2005-10-06T17:46:00.000-07:00

Last week sensei said that I could go ahead and start wearing a kendogi, so of course I ordered one right when I got home. I chose e-bogu.com since I have been happy with their service in the past. I looked at their sizing charts and basically had a choice between sizes for 5'11"-6'1" and 6'1"-6'3". I picked the latter since I thought I would need to account for my extra bulk. My kendogi arrived Tuesday before class, so of course I had to try it on. Man, was it huge! At this point, I became a little unsure as to what size I should be wearing. From looking at people in class, it seemed as if the hakama rode at their hips, but when I measured from there, the measurements did not jive with what the website sizing said.

Luckily, my dear wife tracked down Mike's number and he told me that his hakama rode at his bellybutton. Taking measurements from that point put things more into perspective. It seems I just need one size smaller on my keikogi and hakama. For a nemesis, Mike sure is helpful. I called the folks at e-bogu.com, expecting a long process involving RMAs to exchange my kendogi. The guy on the phone said "just send it back to us with a note and we'll replace it". Hopefully it won't take too long to get back.

A word of warning: You might think that all the people who say you need to set the dye on your kendogi before you wear it are exaggerating. This is absolutely NOT the case. After handling the kendogi while trying it on, my hands turned very blue! Luckily some hot water and dish soap took care of it.

Man, I hope my kendogi gets back soon.

Day 8: First Day of my Second Month

2005-10-04T22:09:00.000-07:00

Wow. I feel like I am really making progress. My lovely wife asked the night before class if this was going to be another "butt-kicking" class, since there would be new people starting today. I agreed that it probably would be, but in the back of my head I was banking on the conditioning improvements that have taken place over the last month to help me out. I was not disappointed.

Class started and during warmups, we got to the part where we do "haya suburi" which I think is a translation for "hopping sword death". This involves hopping backwards and forwards, striking men with each hop. The first time I did this, I thought I was going to die after 20. Today's class we started with 30 and while I was defintely breathing heavier at the end, I made it through with no problem. Then the sempai leading class told us to do 20 more since there was not enough kiai during the first 30. I was breathing heavier after that set, but still felt fine. By the time we bowed in and lined up for drills, I felt completely recovered. This is a far cry from my first class and I consider it a huge win.

I noticed a couple more improvements. When practicing our quick footwork, we always kiai for the entire movement when going at full speed. On Tuesday nights we practice on a full size basketball court, so in the begining I would need 2 breaths to cover the distance with a loud kiai. Tonight, I was able to cover it in one.

The other noticable improvement was in a drill in which we strike kote-men, extending through the strike and moving forward with it as if we were attacking a retreating opponent. Sensei typically has us do this 3 times across the floor, stopping completely after each one. In the past, this movement has seemed somewhat forced, but tonight I really felt the extension and only needed a couple steps to get to the next starting point.

Overall I felt as if, as Hiroshi Ozawa would say, my kendo contained much more vigor.

On the human aspect of class, before class started, someone I would best describe as "a suit" I had seen observing class last week came up and introduced himself to me. Today was his first day in class, so I made polite conversation and welcomed him to the class. At the end of class, I noticed another new guy sitting there who looked to be in his late 30's/early 40's and seemed to have received the same butt-kicking introduction to kendo that I had. I introduced myself and told him that it wouldn't take long to get into shape. He mentioned that it looked like I had been doing this longer than just a month, I told him he was too kind.

I am feeling really good about the progress.

Day 7

2005-10-01T12:56:00.000-07:00

I feel like I dodged a little bit of a bullet with this class. The sensei teaching the class lead us through a more technique heavy class, with less conditioning. I say I dodged a bullet because my ankle was still hurting from tuesday night's "bonding with co-workers" activity of bowling. Not that strenuous of an activity in itself, but given that my ankle was still recuperating from last week, bowling probably wasn't the best thing to do. Oh well.

On a very positive note, I felt that my conditioning has improved a lot since after warmups this class I did not feel winded at all. Glad my body seems to be getting back in business after a few years of doing nothing.

No Kendo tonight

2005-09-27T23:14:00.000-07:00

I had to go to a work function this evening and missed kendo. Luckily it is Tuesday, so I only have to wait until Thursday for my next class.

Supplemental training information

2005-09-26T10:50:00.000-07:00

I've been looking for good methods to improve strength and conditioning without the hassle of going to a gym. There is a wealth of great information available.

My favorite site is Combat Fitness. This site has a number of exercises and routines available. The forums on this site are outstanding. There are a lot of friendly and knowledgeable people on the boards who are very happy to answer questions. Its very refreshing to see a forum with pleasant people.

I also came across this great article about strengthening your body core. Definitely worth a read.

Day 6

2005-09-24T10:40:00.000-07:00

Well, my left ankle was still pretty sore, so I picked up your basic neoprene ankle brace from the mart of sport and it seemed to do the trick. The interesting thing is that my ankle doesn't hurt when in kamae or when performing any kendo specific movements, only when walking. Odd. If I learned one thing from athletics in highschool, its that sometimes you just have to "suck it up".

During warm up, an older sensei walked on to the floor and proclaimed very cheerfully in heavily accented english "ha-ha, I am here tonight!". Little did I and the rest of the beginners know what we were in for. As we started practicing moving across the floor, he instructed us as to the importance of keeping our rear heel off the ground. The first group started moving and he whacked some kid in the leg with his shinai while shouting in barely understandable english "KEEP IT UP!!!". I knew this was going to be a great class. Over the next hour, we recieved amazing instruction on the techniques we were using. Sensei was very clear in his instruction and examples and would yell very loudly if you weren't doing something properly. While practicing extended men strikes as a class, sensei looked in my direction and yelled "back arm straight". My next cut I made a point of straightening out my left arm and he nodded.

At one point sensei was talking about the results of properly extending your strike. Very cheerfully in his heavy accent he said, "You get the one point! You kill him". It was very obvious that he took his role as instructor seriously but also enjoyed it tremendously.

After class, he walked over to one of the students who he had ridden pretty hard during class, patted him on the shoulder and said, "keep up the training, you will do fine". Once again, another excellent instructor.

I am very impressed with the sensei's teaching at this dojo. They all seem to care very much about Kendo and work hard to make sure that their students do as well.

The next day I woke up to my ankle hurting a lot. I took a shower, put some IcyHot on it and over the course of the day it seemed to hurt less and less. By night, it was barely noticable.

Day 5: Aftermath

2005-09-21T09:41:00.000-07:00

Looking over the post from my first class, I do believe last night's class was just as strenuous but my conditioning has improved since then. Hooray for progress.

I got out of bed this morning and my left ankle was SORE. I don't recall twisting it last night, so I think it may just be a component of strengthening the tendons. I'll try and take it easy on that foot today.

Since class starts at 7:00, I've been trying to figure out the best way to make sure I have the proper amount of fuel in my system to have enough energy to practice, but not too much that I feel heavy. Last night I had a banana around 5:30 and it seemed to work pretty well. I found an informative article on sports nutrition which helped quite a bit.

Day 5

2005-09-20T23:25:00.000-07:00

Great class! Sensei taught the class tonight and I'm not sure if it was less strenuous than the first class or if my conditioning has improved. I'm hoping it's the conditioning. I felt pretty good about my form today and I can't wait to learn more.

While working on footwork, I noticed that I'm getting a little less bouncy when moving at full speed. Less bounce, more glide.

I'm still training in sweats and I can't wait to get into a kendogi. I think sensei tells us when we can wear one, so I'll keep up with my training. I have to admit its a little tough to not start wondering when I'll be able to put on bogu and really get training.

p.s. I made sure to update tonight so Mike would have something to read.

Thanks to my future rival.

2005-09-16T14:43:00.000-07:00

My friend Mike (who is married to my wife's cousin, would that be my cousin-in-law?) is also training in Kendo. He has a year's head start on me (which I think is only fair), so I go to him for a lot of advice. He sent me over this great manual with illustrations on all things kendo and he said I had to mention him in my blog because of it. So here it is. THANKS MIKE.

Day 4

2005-09-16T14:07:00.000-07:00

Last night's training was great. The sensei was able to give us intruction in technique and also work us like dogs. I think that's an admirable quality in an instructor. Its easy to just run someone to death, but to actually teach them in the mean time is a completely different thing.

I spoke with sensei about where to hold the tip of the shinai while moving across the floor, and he told me that it's always held at the level of my throat if I don't have an opponent. I'm thinking the student leading the previous class misuderstood the concept when she told me to hold it at her throat level. Of course, being that she was the sempai teaching the class, best course of action would have been to listen, said "hai" and carry on.

I'm not sure if I was doing something wrong last night or if its just part of the conditioning, but my ankles are really sore today. Of course, the more I think about it, I may have been stomping too hard during one drill.

Day 3: Follow Up

2005-09-14T13:12:00.000-07:00

Why I would hold the shinai at the level of my throat in one individual practice and at the level of the instructor's throat in another still confused me, so I thought I might post a question to the forums at kendo-world.com. While I did get the answer from one very helpfull person, I also got some snippy responses of "ask your instructor" and "don't question your teacher". Good to know that there are lame people on ANY forum, not just the ones I usually frequent. What is it about posting in a forum that brings out the "Comic Book Guy" from the Simpsons in everyone?

Anyway, what I was able to glean from the board was when practicing solo, its the level of your own throat, but when practicing lead by an instructor, its the level of the instructor's throat that you use. I have a feeling it may be more linked to whatever the current instructor feels like doing.

Not really sore today, but I can tell I worked out the night before.

Day 3

2005-09-13T22:43:00.000-07:00

Well, I was a little hesitant to go to class tonight since I was expecting to have another session of ashi-sabaki (the sliding step that forms the basis of kendo movement) up and down the dojo floor. I'm not adverse to hard work, but I wasn't feeling all that hot today and the idea didn't thrill me. Luckily my dad helped instill a good sense of dedication in me and I "sucked it up" and went anyway.

We lined up and two senior students led the class through opening exercises while the sensei watched on. I have to admit the student who was teaching sounded a little condescending, but basically I just decided to get over myself and listen past the tone to hear what she was saying. Practice went really well, but I was a bit confused when she told me to hold the point of my shinai at the level of her throat while we were practicing ashi-sabaki. She was about 1 foot shorter than me, so I had to drop the point of my shinai really low. This was counter to what sensei had told me during the last class, which was to hold it at the level of my own throat unless I had a direct opponent to gauge against. Perhaps when practicing singly, you assume the teacher is the opponent?

We started working on technique drills and out of nowhere a really loud kiai (a channeling of force through a shout) kept coming out of my mouth. I felt like I was echoing across the dojo. It felt great. One side benefit is that sensei paid more attention to my technique since I was making so much noise. He noticed that my right hand would slide a little to the side when I raised my shinai for a strike and helped me to correct it.

One particularly fun drill involved having the first and second person in each line face each other, establish mai-ai (strking distance) and then practice ashi-sabaki across the floor, facing each other. Later, we would advance, then the instructor would blow her whistle and we would switch direction, the defender becoming the attacker. It was a blast. It was funny how you seemed to have to go so much faster when you were moving backwards.

It was a great session and I can NOT wait for Thursday.

Day 2

2005-09-08T10:56:00.000-07:00

It seems soaking my foot in cold saltwater helped, my left foot is almost completely pain free. I woke up still a little sore from the last class, which is understandable since I haven't swung a sword in a couple years.

I have to admit to a little bit of hesitancy towards going to class tonight. Was this going to be yet another day of shuffling across the floor with no regards to technique? I was starting to worry that I would be picking up bad habits that I would have to unlearn later on.

I got to class a couple minutes before it began and milled about waiting for class to start. We lined up and started with our warm ups, led by a senior student. Halfway through one of our exercises, another sensei walked on to the floor and had us stop what we were doing and began explaining the purpose of the strike we were doing in this warmup. At that point, the sensei asked how many people had been to less than four practices. I of course raised my hand, as did one or two. A few more people raised their hands as he extended his questioning to less than 2 months. I was glad I wasn't the only one who had no clue.

He then had us continue the exercise as he walked around adjusting people's techniques. I was very relieved to see this. He continued throughout the rest of the class, explaining the purpose of what we were doing, demonstrating proper technique and adjusting students where necessary. I have to admit, I felt a little satisfied when the adjustments I needed to make entailed dropping the point of my shinai 2 inches when in a ready stance and extending my arms out another couple of inches at the end of a men (head) strike. Considering all the other variables being checked (shoulders, posture, grip, arm positioning) I think I did ok.

We ended the practice with a "concentration drill". This entailed a specific number of uchi-men (head strikes) announced by sensei. If anyone raises their shinai for another uchi-men after the count has been reached, sensei picks another number and we start over. This sounds easy, but given that we are counting in Japanese, that made it a little more difficult. I guess I should be happy that I was only responsible for us starting over one of the six times we did.

Class finished and as I bowed out of the dojo I felt that this really was what I wanted to do. If every class for the next 3 weeks, we run our butts off, I'm fine with that knowing that we will actually be working on technique at some point.

I left feeling really good about training and I can't wait until Tuesday.

Day 1: Aftermath

2005-09-07T09:53:00.000-07:00

Ouch. Kendo kicked my butt. I got up this morning with sore muscles, a blistered foot and a raw throat from the kiai. It hasn't felt this great to be alive in a long time.

There's always something about muscle soreness due to working out that feels good, a certain sense of accomplishment. The soreness today had that feeling plus an added something because I knew it was the result of training that I have wanted to do for literally decades.

The blister on my left foot still had some fluid in it and definitely still hurt, so I wrapped it in gauze and managed to squeeze the whole affair into my boot. Once again I am thankful that I found wider boots.

Day 1: Supplemental

2005-09-07T00:01:00.000-07:00

Wow that was a long post. The first few most likely will be, but I am sure once I get into the swing of things, I'll have less to write at once.

Day 1

2005-09-06T23:10:00.000-07:00

I wasn't sure how long it would take for me to get to the dojo since the Winter schedule started today and that meant a new Tuesdays would be in a different location than the one I had watched a class at. Given the new location and I had to fill out paperwork, I arrived at the dojo about 30 minutes early. No sensei was to be found, so I sat down and waited, collecting my thoughts and trying to center myself.

It can sometimes be a very nerve wracking experience to join a new dojo. You're meeting people that you will be training with for the first time. Its somewhat like the first day at school. You don't know anyone, you wonder if you are in the right place, will people be friendly or will they treat you like an outsider and you keep thinking how easy it would be to get up and walk out. I've gone through this many times before, but this was especially tough since it was Kendo that I would be learning.

You see, ever since I picked up A Book of Five Rings and Hakaguri in middle school, I have had a great affection for the sword and the mentality of those who dedicated their lives to studying it. Throughout my life, it has been difficult to find a Kendo dojo in the various places I have lived, so I have studied other arts such as Aikido, Jujitsu and Judo. These have helped me tremendously in my life, but I always wished I was studying Kendo. Aikido kept my attention because there are a lot of sword forms that you can learn in Aikido. Studying martial arts, you usualy meet others who share your passion for the arts and are willing to share what they have learned. Through Aikido, I met a number of people who were willing to teach me the sword techniques they had learned. It wasn't Kendo, but it was closer. I went along this path for a few years until recently I moved to a new city which had not 1, but 2 Kendo dojos within easy reach. Now I would finally be able to train in Kendo after all these years. I was very excited, which almost always translates into very nervous.

I walked up to sign up and the sensei handed me a form to fill out. He saw that I already had a shinai and said "I hope that's the right size". I replied, "It's 39, is that appropriate?" He nodded and handed me the paperwork. I didn't feel it pertinent to mention that he had told me that was the size I needed when I spoke with him 3 weeks earlier. I'm sure he gets a lot of people nosing around that its pointless for him to remember people until they actually show up.

Class started with sensei saying "Line Up" and we went through some basic warmups. These were all pretty standard and I had done them before in either martial arts or athletics, so I managed to tag along ok. After the stretching and body warm up, we picked up our shinai and began warming up with some cuts. Again, I was able to pick up what was going on and managed to stay in step with the rest of the class.

After this was all done, sensei had us line up at one end of the dojo (which is a full size basketball court) and proceeded to work on footwork. The footwork consisted of holding the shinai in a ready position and practicing the shuffle/slide way of moving your feet in kendo. We started slowly and traversed the length of the court. As we progressed, we moved faster and faster up and down the court. After this, we added in sword cuts into the mix. Cut-cut-shuffle. Each trip across the court faster than the last.

As each new sword movement was introduced, sensei would quickly demonstrate and then give the signal to begin. No explanation given, watch and go. This made me think the begining class was just for conditioning and that actual technique would be learned in the advanced class. I began to think this was going to be a long 4-6 months.

We continued at this pace for the next 30-40 minutes and I have to admit, my butt felt royally kicked. The movements alone were tiring, but when we added kiai (that nice shout that people associate with striking arts), that just pushed if over the edge.

I felt like my face must be beet red, my arms felt like lead, it was hard to catch my breath, my feet were burning and my throat was raw. There was no way I was going to quit. I refused to let something like physical exertion beat me. I stuck it through to the end. My form was probably pretty poor when we all got in a large circle and did 50 more uchi as a cool down exercise. My body felt like a bag of wet concrete as we bowed out.

When I sat down to put on my shoes, I noticed that the soles of my feet were black and that I had a cut on big toe. The ball of my left foot hurt in a way that I knew was indicative of a blister, so I walked bare footed out to my car and drove home.

On the ride home I felt very discouraged. This training was hard for the shape I am currently in. I was not looking forward to another few months of this, but if that's what I would have to do to get into full bogu (armor) and train, then this is what I would have to do. By the time I got home, I was resolved to see this through.

I got home, took a shower and sure enough, there was a nice big blister on the ball of my left foot. I soaked that foot in a cold pot of water with sea salt for the rest of the night. It took the hot feel out and I hoped it would help the blister dry up before Thursday's training.

I went to bed very tired, somewhat nervous about what the next class would bring, but resolved to push on with what I've been wanting for so many years.

First Post: An Explanation

2005-09-05T10:52:00.000-07:00

Let's start with the title: A Crow Wading in the Midst. A few years back, the dojo I was training at was going to be visited by an instructor from Japan who spoke very little english. Our instructor thought it best to have our names written in katakana on the sleeve of our gi to make it easier for the instructor to quickly learn who we were.

This lead me to wondering how my name would be written in kanji. I found this great little book called "Write Your Name in Kanji". The author took the approach of offering translations based on direct sound of the name, the meaning of the name (so glad Bruce means "thicket") or a more loose translation based on picking more colorful kanji for the sounds in your name. Two of the more colorful translations for my name were "A Village Chief Schooled in the Martial Arts" and "A Crow Wading in the Mist". The former sounded too boastfull for me and the latter seemed rather interesting, so I stuck with that one. While it may sound like the name of some dippy new age hippie attempting to give themselves a more "native" sounding name, I really like the ring to it.

So while I've thought about doing a blog for years, the only thing I think I would have had to write about are things that annoy me and we all know the internet is FULL of those sort of sites, so I put it off. Now that I've finally started Kendo, I feel that I actually have something interesting to keep track of and offer insight to. This blog will be a record of my training. It will most likely not be of interest to anyone, but then again, maybe there is someone else just starting out who might like knowing that others are going through the same trials.